Chapter I

Written for the Secret Lesbians Kiliel Week hosted on tumblr by hobbithelltrashsquad.

Day 1 - Fluff.

A/N I'm sorry for the tinge of angst in the beginning, but in my defence this is the fluffiest thing I've ever attempted writing... :p

Her heavy boots resounded loudly on the paving stones of the empty street she was striding through. A bitter cold wind was howling through the streets of Dale and Kíli pulled the hood of her cloak back on, tightly holding it with her fingers against the gale. She hurried her way through the alleys, moving deftly through the darkness, hoping her presence would go unnoticed in the early winter night. It had not been easy to sneak past the guards, but Kíli had managed to exit the Mountain without anyone noticing the Princess gone. She felt the sharp bite of guilt when she thought about all the lies she had been spinning to her brother in the past months. But it was the only way. Fíli could not know. No one could. The peace with the Mirkwood Elves was tentative and even if her Uncle graciously hosted the emissaries of King Thranduil, she could still read on his and her brother's face – on everyone's faces – the contempt for the Elven race which was still deeply ingrained in her kin.

It was too soon to spring something like that on her family. They would not understand and they would make it difficult – if not impossible – for Kíli to meet Tauriel. She didn't like sneaking, but it was better than not seeing her.

So sneaked she did, even if she would have liked nothing better than standing atop the highest ramparts of the Mountain and shouting for the whole world to hear how happy she was, how incredibly blessed she felt to have found the most precious treasure. To have found Tauriel. She felt her heart leap in her chest at the thought and she grinned in spite of the cold wind chapping her lips.

Kíli kept pressing forwards. Most of the windows she passed by were dark - Dale still half wrecked after the war had ravaged its stones, scarred already from the dragon onslaught – but every now and then there was the odd light throwing patches of yellow and orange onto the street and Kíli would have to duck to avoid the risk of being seen. She was thankful for once that Men built their windows so ridiculously high above the ground.

Her cloak billowed about her, doing little to shield her from the cold, but Kíli had been used to worse and her steps did not falter. She had almost reached the small square with the broken fountain and her heart began pounding loudly within her ribcage while she scanned her surroundings before stepping into the moonlit square and striding towards a nondescript wooden door. Casting one more look behind her shoulder Kíli pushed against the wood. The door slid open soundlessly and Kíli felt herself grin when she recalled Tauriel's baffled frown when she had observed Kíli oiling the hinges a fortnight before.

She closed the door behind her, bolting it. It took her eyes no time to adjust to the utter darkness and she gripped the handrail of the narrow staircase, nearly running up the stairs while her grin widened with each step she took. In a heartbeat she was emerging in the windswept attic and her eyes immediately locked on the tall silhouette of Tauriel.

Her breath hitched in her throat and she silently observed her, taking in the way her long red hair billowed in the wind like a beacon while the bright star-encrusted sky painted the skin of her hands in mithril white. Tauriel was standing by the broken portion of the roof, motionlessly gazing at the night and Kíli's feet moved of their own accord, her footsteps loudly echoing on the attic floor.

Tauriel turned her head toward her, giving Kíli the softest of smiles. Not the widest, nor the brightest, but still the most precious one to Kíli – the one Tauriel reserved for her only.

"Meleth nín." she said in her melodic voice and Kíli was reminded of the silver bells which would chime inside the Mountain and the whisper of the River Running where it tenaciously sprung from the dark green rock, growing wider and stronger until it burst out of the bowels of the earth and into the wideness of the world outside.

Kíli smiled, lost in her thoughts and yet unable to tear her eyes from the Elven maid who held the very stone of her heart in her long-fingered hands – much too delicate-looking to as deadly as Kíli knew they were. And oh how beautiful she had been when Kíli had seen her the first time, a warrior goddess if Kíli had ever imagined one and at the same time as fine and precious as golden wire. Fire and starlight, and so different from Kíli she still struggled to fathom they could be there, standing a hairbreadth one from the other and Tauriel's beautiful green eyes looking at her with the same wonder she reserved for the stars she loved so much.

But she loved Kíli too. And it seemed nearly unthinkable that such a perfect creature could love her, a dwarrowdam – and much too scrawny to be considered pretty, but that had never bothered Kíli. Not until she had laid eyes on Tauriel. Not until she had seen that mane of fiery hair whip about while she slashed and cut, dancing the tune of death with a grace that had made Kíli's breath catch in her throat.

"I still don't know what that means." she replied at last, then grinning she added "Amrâlimê."

"Well that makes two of us, then." Tauriel replied in earnest, before her eyes twinkled in the darkness and laughter bubbled from her beautiful lips.

Kíli found herself grinning widely, her hand reaching for Tauriel's, while the latter stepped closer, cupping Kíli's cheek with her other hand. Kíli's heart was drumming inside her chest and her stomach fluttered while her own fingers rose to the nape of Tauriel's neck, tangling in the soft silky hair. It danced between her knuckles like strands of wind.

Soft like Tauriel's lips when she bent down to press the lightest of kisses on Kíli's lips. And she closed her eyes, losing grasp of the world, with all its rules and harshness, with all its pride and hatred, with all the scars that one single war could not erase. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the closeness of her beautiful Elven maid.

Her Elven maid, who was stalwart like the breeze that whipped her hair into Kíli's unbraided locks, and at the same time as ephemeral as the stone under Kíli's feet. She was so different from her and yet nothing had ever felt so right as circling her narrow waist with her strong arms while Tauriel's willowy limbs tangled with her own. Nothing had ever felt so right as kissing those soft delicate lips. And nothing, nothing was more beautiful than the sight of her smile, the sound of her laughter and the bright green of her eyes which were locked on hers, brimming with the same emotion that engulfed every breath Kíli took.

And Kíli wished she could take that moment and forever preserve it. Because her life had been good, had been filled with many joys in spite of all the sorrows, but she had not known what happiness was until Tauriel had burst into her life, like the gale that wailed around them, shielding them from the world.

She caught Tauriel's lips once again and her thoughts vanished from the forefront of her mind while nothing but warmth of her lean body and the smell of the wind in her hair filled Kíli's senses. And she thanked the Maker for this moment. While the wind wailed and the stone sung in her ears.